Separations of chemical mixtures, inclusive of separation of a substance into its components as well as removal of impurities in a mixture comprising one or more components of interest, have been developed and are currently used in a large number of applications in fields such as medicine and manufacturing.
Separations differentiate among constituents in a mixture based on differences in chemical properties or physical properties such as size, shape, mass, density, or chemical affinity, between the constituents of a mixture. Separation processes are often classified according to the particular differences they use to achieve separation. If no single difference can be used to accomplish a desired separation, multiple operations will often be performed in combination to achieve a desired end.
Despite development of various methods, separation of mixtures of structurally similar components can still be challenging.